Help Quebec
Activists Preserve Aesthetic Pesticide Ban
(Beyond Pesticides, March 6, 2006) Quebec activists
from the Coalition
for Alternatives to Pesticides (CAP) are asking concerned citizens
of Canada, the U.S. and beyond to write to the Minister of the Environment,
Claude Béchard,
and ask that he leave the Quebec Pesticide Code untouched and implement
the final phase as scheduled on April 3, 2006. Let the new Minister
that the preventive protections provided through the Pesticide Code
of Quebec are important to you and that it serves as a model for your
own state, province or country.

The former Minster
of Environment, Thomas Mulcair, who was a staunch supporter of the Pesticide
Code, has been replaced by Mr. Béchard, former Minister of Economic
Development, Innovation and Export Trade. Canadian activists are concerned
that he may give in to industry pressure to weaken the code.

While the lawn care
industry could have used the Code as an opportunity to grow the organic
side of the business, it chose to fight the Code. At a conference held
late in 2005, the industry was announced that every effort would be
made to get 2,4-D off the list of pesticides to be banned in Quebec.

CAP is asking that
people write to the new Minister of the Environment urging him: 1) to
keep 2,4-D on Quebec’s list of banned active pesticide ingredients;
2) to leave the Pesticide Code untouched; and, 3) to implement the final
phase of the Pesticide Code of Quebec, as scheduled, on April 3, 2006.

Take
Action: Below is a sample letter to send to the Minister of
Environment, Mr. Béchard. Please feel free to modify it to your
own words. For background on the code see this Daily
News story from March 2003.

For Quebec residents,
if you wish to contact your Member of the National Assembly, or send
them a copy of your letter, the coordinates can be found at: http://www.assnat.qc.ca/eng/Membres/deputes.shtml

I am writing to
congratulate you on your appointment as the new Minister of the Environment.
I also want to bring a very important matter to your attention.

On April 3, 2006,
the Pesticide Code of Quebec will be brought into its final phase of
implementation. I have been given to understand that there is a concerted
effort to remove 2,4-D from the list of pesticides to be banned under
the Pesticide Code of Quebec. Undoubtedly, you are or will be inundated
with reports, studies and various other materials touting the safety
of this herbicide, just as at one point, it was said that the pesticides
DDT, Lindane, Chlordane, Chlorpyrifos (Dursban), Diazinon, etc., were
all safe. Even though these pesticides have now been banned in North
America, some of them still persist in our water, air, soil, food and
bodies, and have contaminated people and animals as far as the Arctic.

Amidst the damage
to human health and the environment, I do not recall any pesticide industry
lobbying to take care of the victims of this contamination, nor of the
environment that has been degraded. On the contrary, Health Canada goes
to great lengths to accommodate industry, even allowing them several
years to finish using stocks of pesticides, long after there is proof
of harm and even after it has been decided that the pesticide must be
removed from Canada. There are no records of how many of our children
and loved ones have paid a high price to protect corporate profits.

A recent study “Toxic
Nation: a report on pollution in Canadians” described how during
the past 50 years, breast cancer incidence has climbed 90 percent; non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma, a cancer tied to a weakened immune system, has increased 250
percent; asthma affects more kids than ever before; and neurological
problems1 such as autism and Parkinson's disease are increasing in the
young and elderly. Biomonitoring tests reveal toxic chemicals, particularly
pesticides and related chemicals, are in all of us.2 A Quebec study
found pesticides in the bodies of children. Of the children tested,
98.7% were contaminated with pesticides. 3 Among the pesticides found,
was the herbicide 2,4-D.

It is imperative
that Quebec takes the Precautionary Principle to heart. Quebec will
not stand alone in banning 2,4-D for use on green spaces. Sweden, Norway
and Denmark have already done this. 2,4-D has been classified as a hormone
disrupter. Cancer rates in Sweden dropped once pesticides were restricted.
4

Therefore I come
back to the Pesticide Code of Quebec. This is a unique piece of legislation
that has placed human health and the environment above all other considerations.
I congratulate you in advance for upholding the Code. Our children and
future generations will thank you for this.

I thank you and
look forward to your reply and remain,

Yours sincerely,

Please write your
name and address here, and include the references below: